


3020

by Elle_est_vivant



Category: Hermitcraft, MindCrack RPF
Genre: Cyberpunk, Etho’s irl name in this fanfic is Dave idk why, High Tech Low Living, M/M, Minesonas shipping only, minecraft but characters emerged consciousness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25946719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elle_est_vivant/pseuds/Elle_est_vivant
Summary: Daniel has a Minecraft persona called VintageBeef. His friend Dave, whom he met through Minecraft, has a Minecraft persona called Etho. They make videos together, people enjoy their collabs, and, after one of Daniel’s ongoing solo series kinda flop and the said series’ world broke, he reached out to Dave asking whether he wanted to do a new collab series.But the collab didn’t go well. Random things happen when Daniel logs on, things not done by him, and Dave swore it wasn’t him. It’s almost like... VintageBeef and Etho are conscious, individual beings instead of controlled characters.
Relationships: Etho/Daniel M. | VintageBeef
Comments: 7
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> To clear any tiniest bit of confusions up,
> 
> Beef’s irl name is Daniel, Pause’s is Alex, we don’t know Etho’s but I make it Dave for this book.
> 
> There is not a real collab series that I’m referring to with the imaginary series ‘3020’. The inspiration is from Beef’s Hermitcraft cyberpunk city.

And the world crumbled, falling apart, blindingly bright and creepily dark cracks formed all over the place, in the sky, in the ocean, on the lands, everywhere. Abysses on the ground, and everything was severed, not falling, but ground down into nothingness gradually, including Beef himself.

On Daniel’s monitor, the game flashed for a few second after a huge lag spike, and quit unexpectedly.

Daniel swore under his breath, and relaunched Minecraft. The previous world was way too buggy and people didn’t like the series that much anyways, he thought, I might as well start a new one.

Before he clicked ‘start recording’, though, he paused and thought for a second.

_People seemed to really want Team Canada back. Alex is currently busy with life but Dave...? I can probably talk him into some new series. Probably with mod packs. Yeah._

He switched to the mod browsing page, scrolling through the various mod packs. Finally, his cursor stopped on a cyberpunky, futuristic thumbnail imagery.

‘3020’.


	2. The Game Begins

Dave logged on to the new server with the mod pack installed, finding that Daniel, or rather, VintageBeef was already online.

It’s weird. He knew the person he would be recording with, the friend he had known for years, is a human being called Daniel, but when talking to him, it was weird for him to address him anything other than ‘Beef’ and imagining him anything other than a two blocks tall blocky being.

He pulled himself back from the random thoughts, and called Daniel on discord. They adjusted their audio, Dave quickly went through the rules before they started the recording, and with one click, Daniel’s, or Beef’s voice came through his headphones as he shifted around, scanning all directions for the camera view.

‘Hello guys, VintageBeef here, with Etho, and we’re playing another map this time...’

Dave leaned back in his chair, as he controlled Etho to punch Beef while the latter was trying to do the intro.

‘...So it’s basically a really really long adventure map with - Etho don’t - cyberpunk settings, we are in the future, there is an ‘enlightenment’ goal and we pursue it by seeking for knowledge and truth - ETHO STOP - and there’s actually different endings so we can potentially fail... and considering it’s me and Etho... we probably will fail.’

And, with all that, 3020 took place.

The map was more challenging than both of them thought. As it was an adventure map, they thought it would be... fun and relaxing.

It was the opposite.

3020 almost felt like a completely different game, but only that it was made in Minecraft. All the tones were different, there are trash cans and steaming sewers, half broken neon signs, filthy but populous stands, there were even NPCs with different skins. Etho spawned in an apartment building that had nothing but empty cabinets and interesting looking machines that don’t have an interface when right-clicked.

And they were already lost five minutes into the map.

‘Etho. What do I do.’

‘I don’t know it’s not like I chose the modpack... oww it says on the screen _you tripped on a wire_ and I’m down a heart already.’

Dave was also bewildered by the map. He tried to focus on the map and not converse with Daniel in order to make any progress at all, but without Alex to distract Dan... it’s hard.

‘Eth-‘

‘Here. I found a door that can be opened.’ Dave skilfully controlled Etho towards the top of the building, where an iron door leads to the rooftop with more interesting machines.

‘You mean the door that leads to where I currently am? Yes I see it. And your nametag.’

‘......’

This time they had interfaces. Dave let Daniel read the lore that was on one of the interfaces out loud first, while he was checking all the other interfaces for all the interesting looking machines.

_‘... the year 3020 AD, the definition of human and robots are blurred to the point beyond differentiation. Everyone is a cyborg, and as cyborgs are not human, cyborgs are not under the moral confines of human laws. At the top tiers of the pyramids of society, new, incredible inventions are invented, new technologies applied, people already conquered the Moon and Mars and next up Venus. At the base of the pyramid, looting, vandalism, murders, ignorance..._ man that’s a long read Etho you do the next.’

‘You know, reading would be a nice thing especially since it just called us ignorant, so you keep the honour.’

‘Etho-‘ Beef punched Etho with a random piece of sugarcane only to be reminded that he himself turned PVP off for the server.

‘Okay I’ll do it.’ Dave cleared his throat, _‘...ignorance. It’s the survival of the fittest, the law of the jungle, egoism is the one faith. No one cares about how did the world become what it became, no one cares about whether there’s a way out of the lifelong arena filled with filth. But you. Yes, you, Etho and VintageBeef, you are different. You realised that this shouldn’t be. You decided to seek the truth, to seek enlightenment. It will come with a price, but you don’t know yet.’_

Dave closed the interface. ‘Well now I do know, right?’

‘Pretend you don’t...wait here’s a thing.’

‘What?’

‘A thing. Literally a physical thing. Here.’

Dave swooped his mouse across on the screen, turning around just to see Beef jump off of the apartment building they were on.

‘Beef wh-‘

_ VintageBeef fell from a high place _

‘...nevermind that weren’t slime blocks...wait I got a button in my inventory! Can be placed on redstone block. Hmmm...’

‘I mean there’s one downstairs at the apartment door right?’ Dave scratched his head, then took a sip from his water bottle. When he looked at the screen again, Beef was gone from his sight.

They’ve had fun recording the first episode. The storyline was indeed very smart and complicated as the reviews suggested, and they haven’t made great progress, but goofing around was most definitely their strong suit and they have somehow managed to make the very first episode of such a deep, existential map into a comedy.

Dave hang up the discord call after he logged out of the server, and yawned. It was the afternoon already, and he stood up from his gaming chair, stretching his arms.

This will be interesting, he thought.

  
  


Etho rubbed his eyes, as he adjusted to the lights in the building. Not that they were particularly bright, just not what he was used to.

He walked up the stairwell, his hands accidentally making contact with the old peeling and flaking walls now and then. The building goes up and up, but every time he looked up he could notice how he was getting closer and closer to the top.

When he finally made it all the way up, he was met with an iron door. He tentatively reached for the button right next to the door, but before he could press it, the door popped open, a brown-haired man on the other side, about the same height as himself, wearing an apron stained with what he could only imagine was blood.

He took a step back instinctually, a scream stuck in his throat. Behind him was the staircase; he felt his body tilting backwards, out of control, and he shut his eyes, anticipating the painful collision.

It didn’t happen. Someone grabbed his hands just in time, pulling him back onto his feet. He opened his eyes nervously, and saw the bloody apron man’s face again, but closer up, and smiling instead of the shocked expression he had a second ago.

‘Sorry I didn’t know there was another person here... anyway, I’m Beef, nice to meet you.’ The bloody apr... Beef grinned at Etho as he released his hands, ‘you okay?’


	3. Attempted Autonomy

‘Hey guys welcome back to another episode of thirty tw-‘

‘-Labyrinth of Puzzles!’ Dave shouted into his mic, grinning, knowing how much Daniel wanted to murder him right now and enjoying annoying his friend.

‘Seriously it has been six years Etho...’

‘Nah it’s still a good one.’ 

‘That’s true. Now we have reached what seems to be the actual beginning of the map - this hall right here. We actually went and took a break irl after the last recordings, it has been two days ago, so to refresh both you guys and ourselves a bit, I think this thing over here takes the final decision...’

Daniel, although is most of the times pretty goofy, normally takes the serious parts of recordings better. There’s something with Dave when it comes to multiplayer serious stuff; either the very fourth-wall-breaking Kakashi skin, the deeper voice that doesn’t really suit his personality that well, or something.

‘... and this book here is probably our guide to the next step. So we should probably try and figure out where all those words mean... and find Etho.’

Dave snapped back into the reality, as he heard Beef saying his name. He readjusted his mic, glancing back at the monitor.

‘I’m right h... no I’m not. Wait.’

His eyes opened wide with surprise. He was not at where he logged on anymore, not the altar like skyscraper build where Beef was currently at, but a corridor he never remembered seeing before.

‘I don’t know where I’m at. Umm, do you think checking coords is cheating? Or is this some bug or something.’

‘Ehhh... I say just tp. Not cheating. Definitely. We probably don’t want to spent half an episode just to find each other.’

‘What if this is what’s supposed to happen? Like, I’m supposed to be teleported after we find the central hall?’

‘There’s no chat messages and I feel like it shouldn’t simply randomly teleport you without the storyline advancing... Guys, you know what, we’ll figure this off camera for a bit and we’ll be back.’

The second half was to the currently imaginary audience, and a faint click sound came through Dave’s headset, the familiar sound of Dan’s recording keybind click.

‘So now what?’ After a pause, Dan’s voice came through again, a bit nervous which Dave did not expect to hear.

‘Is watching a walkthrough up to this point where I got teleported cheating or is it a troubleshooting method? Because I feel like we are on our way of screwing this up no matter I tp or not.’

‘Etho why do weird technical messes always happen to me?’

Dave’s hand grabbing snacks paused in midair as he was faced with his friend’s abrupt question.

‘It’s called life I guess.’

Sarcasm was a thing he never lacked when chatting with Daniel, and the latter could always tell he was not serious and have a good laugh together. However, he felt like he went overboard this time before he even finished speaking. And just as he thought, Daniel on the other side was silent for way longer than reasonable.

‘Beef? Sorry if I said anything... you okay?’

‘Yeah.’

Dave couldn’t see mental breakdowns through a discord call, but he could sure sense one. Not a strong one, just Beef-had-a-bad-day one, but still.

‘Etho seriously why it’s always me that experience these stuff? That old single player series, then this, I don’t know, life itself is trying to stop my YouTube career...’

Dave took a deep breath.

‘Come on, it’s literally just by chance, and hey I’m the one that got randomly teleported so technically it’s not you right?’

As if he was afraid these weren’t enough to make the other feel better, he added, in a softer voice.

‘Let’s take a break. This recording can wait, no one will know that there’s a week-long gap between the ‘we troubleshooting’ and ‘we troubleshooted’. It’s okay.’

‘Sure.’

Dave thought Beef - Daniel, but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking his real name was Beef - he thought Daniel would hang up after that, but he heard the muffled ‘thanks for being there’ before the silence.

It puts a smile on his face.

‘Beeeeeeeef-‘ Etho stumbled across the ceiling, poking his upper body outside the rooftop’s edge, catching a glimpse of Beef falling down.

‘I’m good.’ A voice came from behind him, and he snapped around, finding Beef standing there, without a single scratch.

‘How-‘

‘Oh my respawn happened to be right here on the top of this building.’

‘...respawn?’

Now Beef was confused. ‘...yeah? The place where you resurrect after you die? Yeah.’

‘You can resurrect?’

It was at this moment that Beef realised, this Etho person was either mentally impaired, or space warped from another universe. Considering his clear eyes and decent attire, Beef chose to believe the second.

‘Yup in this universe you can resurrect. You’re new here?’

‘I guess...? I blacked out and when I woke up I was in the stairwell of this building.’

Etho still seemed very lost, and now that he was sure he had been dragged into a strange dimension, fear started developing. 

‘Beef... what do I do?’

Beef sighed. Another burden in his already tough life? But if he doesn’t help then clearly what’s waiting for Etho are infinite suffering in this rather harsh world. Sure, they can’t even die, nothing could’ve gone wrong.

‘You can stay with me until you figure it out, right?’

Before Etho could answer, a sharp, mechanical horn pierced through the air, as Beef immediately ran towards the little shed on the roof, dragging him along.

‘Beef what happened-‘

‘Sorry if I scared you. Umm, that’s the ‘we’re cleaning up the city’ alarm.’

‘But why do we have to hide...?’

Beef’s heart dropped a bit. The man in front of him clearly didn’t know what sort of a world he was in right now, all the cruel ness, the injustice, the despair, he must have no idea at all.

‘Etho, we are what they’re clearing. Useless, space-occupying, oxygen-wasting people. We have no employment values, the robots do thing way better and cheaper than we can. We are uneducated, there’s no art and literature coming from us. We are the filth.’

‘But we can’t die... right? So how...’

Etho appeared calm, and apparently a smart and logical person. Beef inwardly felt relieved; maybe he wouldn’t be a burden at all, but a helping hand.

‘They take you away to a far place and basically throw you there, locked up in a large storage building, and leave you to starve and thirst away, over and over again, for basically eternity. I haven’t experienced it, of course, I’m still right here, but-‘

He suddenly halted, his breath along with his words, as he gestured Etho to do the same. Etho did so, holding his breath, not knowing why, but his heartbeats were racing like crazy.

It wasn’t hard to figure out why. Outside, sounds of boots and little flame propellers were becoming closer and closer.

And closer. Towards the tool shed they were in, and then, loud, almost deafening knocking, or rather, violent sounds of people trying to break the door.

Etho’s face was visibly growing pale. He looked at Beef helplessly, as the latter sat there, absolutely inanimate. He tried to copy his actions, staying inanimate, praying his heartbeats don’t sell him away.

Luckily, the banging on the door ceased, and the sound of boots and propellers were going farther and farther away. Etho still didn’t dare to speak until the sound completely ceased and Beef spoke first, what happened was too much for him to handle straight up.

‘Are you okay?’ Beef moved over and patted his shoulder, as he nodded, still not recovered from the shock.

‘We need to start moving. Not right now, after the search ends, I bet they already suspect this shed. We need a new hiding place. Also... damn it.’

Beef swore under his breath, but Etho still heard it.

‘Is everything alright...?’

‘Yeah. I’m just low on food and my vitals monitor’s screen cracked for I have no idea why.’

Before Etho could ask what a vitals monitor is, he added, ‘that’s the thing that shows you how far you are from dying, along with how hungry and thirsty you are. You better have one or it will be a struggle trying to find you one.’

Etho flipped through his pockets, which there were a lot of, trying to find the thing in Beef’s hand, a small, rectangular machine with a row of long, thin display screens, flashing three different coloured lights.

He found nothing.

Beef already saw this result coming before Etho could tell him that. He sighed again, then standing up, opening the shed door.

‘Let’s go. We need to get you a vitals monitor.’

Outside, the sun was bright.


	4. Started With Life

Etho looked around him on the street. It was crowded, dirty, the sewers were steaming smoke that he could feel the disgustingness just by looking at them. 

Back where he was from, the sidewalks were clean, trees were common, and sewers didn’t steam stinky vapours. He tried to look nonchalant, but clearly his expressions sold him and Beef was a bit embarrassed, trying to speak.

‘...yeah I know it looks very... not clean. Around where that skyscraper is are some clean and neat areas though... it’s just that we don’t have the permission to go over there.’

‘... no that’s okay. It’s just... very new to me, that’s all.’

Beef took the chance Etho gave him to divert the topic. ‘So do you remember what it’s like where you’re from?’

‘Actually yeah. Just not super clearly, and I still have no idea what happened to me.’ Etho scratched his head, avoiding all the weird looks from people on the street. ‘It’s not that far from this though, the streets are cleaner, and there’s less weird technology things. We can’t revive, and there’s no vitals monitors or anything like that, and... we’re not filth. We’re people. Quote on quote.’

‘That sounds surprisingly similar to life a hundred years ago.’ 

‘Does it?’

‘Yeah. When I was still in elementary school we learnt about modern history, and that sounds very extremely like it. Actually... Etho,’ Beef’s eyes suddenly lit up as if he made a huge discovery, ‘I think you time travelled.’

‘What?’

Some people are stopping by to watch their weird out of context conversation, and Beef pulled on Etho’s wrist, walking away quickly. They made a turn at a narrow alley, no more stinky sewers but boxes of trash everywhere, and Etho had no choice but to follow Beef. No one really cared about who they were anyways; they were soon alone and not getting unwanted attention anymore.

‘You don’t know if someone knows something you don’t. You never know. No one can be trusted. Anyway, do you remember which year were...are you from?’

‘Give me a sec... twenty something. I believe 2020.’

‘Right. We’re in 3020.’

‘So I did-‘

‘Yeah. Welcome to the future then.’ Beef grinned as he disappeared right in front of Etho’s eyes into a little stand facing the alleyway. ‘We’re here.’

Etho hesitantly entered the stand too. Hesitantly, because he first glanced at the inside of the room, and the one at the scrap metal counter... well, let’s put it this way, if he looked like a bad guy, then Beef with his bloody apron and unreasonably buff physique looked like an angel. 

The man wasn’t scary because of his height or body build. Sure, he was tall and quite muscular as well, but those weren’t the point. Something told Etho he wasn’t a nice person - he wasn’t the Beef kind of person - and he stood at the doorway of the stand, where the sun shield and trash boxes were, and didn’t get any closer. 

‘How you doing Beef?’ The said man have Beef a fist bump, as Beef laughed and patted him hard on the shoulder.

‘Not bad. I picked up a human on the way and I wonder if you still have stuff in stock?’

‘The last one. Lucky them.’ The tall, scary looking man bent down beneath the counter, but stood up again before he got anything out.

‘Payment?’

‘Err... you know what a hard life I live, right?’ Beef’s expression suddenly became a bit awkward, as he subconsciously patted his pockets, flattening the fabric.

The tall man raised an eyebrow. ‘You know I also have to make a living, right?’

Etho wanted to run away, but was too scared. His legs felt like they were filled with lead; too heavy to even lift up. 

‘Doc... come on, it’s not like I’m a posh man with three monitors, it’s this lad right here needs one for survival-’ 

Beef was clearly in his last line of defence, he himself didn’t even seem to expect that to work. 

And surprisingly it did work. The tall man, Doc seemed to be his name, he glanced at the trembling Etho at the door, and, for no reason Beef could think of, bent down again and grabbed out a new vitals monitor.

Beef reached out to grab it, but Doc retracted his hand, still looking at Etho, a complicated expression on his face. 

‘You. Yes, you. Come get this yourself.’

There’s a dark light in his eyes, like a flash of hostility, as if he wanted to tear apart Etho’s spinal cord one by one. Etho shivered, stealing glances at Beef while not daring to look away from Doc. 

Beef couldn’t see Doc’s eyes and the strange light in them. He nodded to Etho, gesturing him that it’s okay, although this man’s weird, this man’s his friend.

Trembling, Etho shuffled forward, reaching his hand out. The man pressed the little monitor onto his palm with some unnecessary force, his large, rough hands practically gripping onto Etho’s.

‘What’s your name?’

The man had a deep voice originally, but not this deep. Etho shivered, but didn’t dare to lie.

‘Etho.’

He released his hand, taking a casual step back, and his expressions have returned to normal. ‘Good.’ 

Even Beef noticed weirdnesses.

‘Er, thanks man, we gotta go I’ll pay you when I can... bye.’ He grabbed Etho’s other arm, dragging him out of the store.

Etho was confused. And scared. And very startled. He didn’t let Beef release him even after they were quite a distance from the clearly black market like place, hanging onto Beef’s arm.

It wasn’t until ten minutes later that he spoke again.

‘That was scary...’

‘Yeah now I’m under debt.’ Beef snorted, but apparently not upset with Etho’s existence at all. 

‘But he won’t hurt me even if I can’t pay him back, we’ve known each other for a long time. He was being a bit weird today though... I wouldn’t overthink.’

‘Okay.’ Etho’s hands relaxed a bit, letting Beef’s arm go. ‘So what do I do with this?’

‘One drop of blood in the top slit, and that’s it. It’ll constantly display your stats. Solar powered, so no need to conserve energy.’

‘Alright.’ 

Before he bit down on his own fingertip, he looked at Beef, trying to find evidence of him being trustworthy.

‘What?’

‘I don’t really like that Doc person. I feel like I can’t trust him.’

‘I thought you’re those... naive people judging on how quickly you trusted me. But that’s okay, that’s good, keep the doubts up. It’s safer this way for you.’

Etho didn’t say anything more and got in with setting his vitals monitor. Drips of blood seeped out from his fingertip, as he quickly licked his wound after a drop landed on the monitor’s slit.

Beef stood there, watching silently as if afraid that if he startled Etho he would bite his own finger off by accident. His zoning out stares suddenly met Etho’s, now calm, clear, and a bit soul-penetrating for him for no apparent reason he could think off.

‘You’re not surprised that a time traveller randomly entered your life.’

‘You’re not surprised that you time traveled.’ Beef was careful with every word in his response, choosing the safe way to answer. ‘Also, apparently it’s not very you-like to trust me this much.’

A bitter smile of reality-settling-in appeared on Etho’s face.

‘Do I have a choice?’


	5. History and Icebreakers

‘So... who’s Doc?’

‘That’s a very hard question.’ Beef pulled open a can of energy drink looking tin can, and handed it to Etho, as they sat down on the half-broken couch in Beef’s apartment.

By apartment, it really was just some walls with holes in them, one hole had a door, two holes had windows.

‘Genius, weirdo, mafia, whatever. He doesn’t care. He was one of the more educated ones - I think he was already in high school or something when the Digital Revolution took place - and man he was a genius in technologies. That vitals monitor you’ve got? He made it himself.’

Beef lowered his voice for the last sentence, as Etho listened very closely, interested to know more. 

‘Even the government tried to recruit him once, and guess what he did.’ Beef paused, his eyes filled with respect towards the Doc person. ‘He twisted that government dog’s neck and became a proper underground dealer. Could’ve escaped the misery, but he chose the justice. That’s why I trust him so much.’

‘Err... I need context. On the revolution and the government and everything.’

‘Oh yeah right you have no idea now do you.’ Beef laughed, finishing off his can of energy drink in a few large gulps. ‘Here I’ll show you.’

He led Etho to the little cabinet in the corner, and pulled the very bottom drawer open, fetching out an old, almost ancient leather-covered notebook from the pile of clothes.

‘Welcome to the history class where we cover the the biggest change ever happened in human history.’

‘In 2079, researchers have found the technology for immortality and three months after they found an unbelievably cheap and fast way to do it. Therefore in the winter that year, all people injected the new immortality serum. Now by immortality it just means you don’t die naturally, no. No cancers or pneumonia or ageing. But you can still surely die of accidents, I mean, it’s just impossible that you’ll still live with your head chopped off, right? So in that situation you simply respawn.’

‘The pre-revolutionary government thought it was a great idea to make everyone immortal, since people were getting less and less interested in starting a family and intergalactic colonisation already seemed very promising, so no risk of overpopulation. They made the absolute wrong move.’

‘Now that rich people don’t die, wealth soon concentrated to the very very top within tens of years, and poverty became common. Rich people built highly advanced, technological cities that exclude us and factories dependent on robots and not people, and that’s basically the start of us ordinary people being useless.’

‘The Digital Revolution happened in 2085. The government fell for being useless - not technically corrupted, just weak and useless - and those rich people we’ve talked about, they became the ruling class.’

‘Technically we still have equality. Technically it’s an anarchy from the Revolution all the way to now, but clearly, and you’ve seen it, clearly it’s not. Those rich people are the practical government, they decided that we’re an eyesore, our existence takes up too much space. They started clearing us up into what’s basically a concentration camp.’

‘So there’re gradually less and less of us. One day there’ll be none of us. But again, we can’t die, so there’s always hope no matter what.’

A pale grin appeared on Beef’s face.

‘Or at least that’s what I try to believe.’

Etho fell into a long silence, processing the information and trying to remember them all, thinking of any questions he had.

‘How do I know who are the rich people and who is one of us?’

‘Look at my clothes. This is what we look like. And look at... umm... your clothes, but imagine them even fancier. That’s what rich people look like. As for their underdogs, they’re all cyborgs.’

‘Cyborgs...?’

‘Yeah. Robots cannot quite manage to do interactive tasks like capturing people yet, so they use cyborgs. Probably made from some of the captured people in the concentration camp, we don’t know, but that’s the only reasonable guess.’

Beef grabbed a water bottle from the floor, and took another sip, despite the entire can of energy drink he just finished.

‘I’ve done a lot of talking. Your turn, tell me about your time. Do you have any idea how did you get here?’

‘I... now I think I do. I feel like my memories are coming back to me gradually. I committed suicide.’

‘I have a genetic defect. Not exactly albino, but a little bit. It’s weird, I know. So I have white hair and pale skin and one single red eye, and it looks weird, and I was bullied a lot when I was in school. That gave me depression. And although people around me were more mature when I started working, although they don’t make fun of me or even mention it unnecessarily, the depression still didn’t go away. So... yeah.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Beef swallowed, clearly didn’t expect this as his answer. ‘But why would they bully you though? Your eyes look so cool and stuff!’

‘You think so?’ Etho smiled a bit bitterly. ‘Man I wish you were there back when I... ummm... lived. They all thought it’s creepy and weird. Anyways... I didn’t die and time travelled, so it doesn’t matter I guess.’ 

‘In more details, I had a very ordinary school life, I worked as an engineer,’ He saw Beef didn’t catch up with the information, so he quickly added, ‘that’s the people that work with machines and wires and stuff.’

‘Oh no I got that part. I am alive before the Revolution, our lives aren’t that far apart. I’m just still not over why they would bully you for looking cool.’

‘Oh yeah I forgot. Yeah, so I worked as an engineer, I don’t have families or that many friends or anything, so that’s... about it when it comes to me. I was twenty eight when I died, it was my birthday.’

Etho looked at Beef, a weird nostalgia in his expression. 

‘It feels so weird to describe my own death.’

‘You‘ll get used to it. We die a lot in this era.’

The sky outside grew darker and darker.

Daniel drove back from the farm towards his house, as the skies are tuning down. It was sure nice to take a break from work and software bugs; Dave was absolutely right.

He hadn’t checked the 3020 save for days. And Dave, knowing Daniel wasn’t on, hadn’t checked it either.

They had no idea about Beef and Etho being alive.


	6. Parting Ways Then Regretting

It was getting late. As much as Beef wanted to provide Etho with shelter for the first night, he had no choice but tell him sorry but no, as he really had no space left in his one single apartment room.

Beef was really the lucky ones, at least he still had a roof above his head and walls around his floor. A lot of people sleep on streets, a lot of people can’t find shelter at all, after all, they can’t die, so why bother seeking safety.

But there really is no way to squeeze in two people on one couch - yes Beef had no beds - and to be honest, he trusted Etho, but didn’t trust him enough to keep him around when he was asleep. Yeah, he couldn’t be killed, but he could be kidnapped and taken to the concentration camp. Who knows who Etho really was, he might be the best actor there ever existed faking an innocent persona.

Beef had a feeling that Etho was nicer than all the rest when they first encountered each other, but still, he didn’t want to risk it at all. He bought him a vitals monitor, taught him the fundamentals of this society, and, although this might not be a good thing, introduced him to Doc. He felt like he did enough for him.

Thankfully, Etho knew he wasn’t particularly welcomed and Beef didn’t have to ask with awkwardness and rudeness.

‘Err, so I guess you’re gonna sleep soon...? And I’d better be off. Right. I guess I have to learn how to sleep on the streets and this is life now.’

Etho shuffled towards the door, and it didn’t take Beef much effort to send him off his way politely.

It started raining not soon after, and although there was a roof, it still felt like it’s splashing against himself for Beef.

More specifically, against his conscience.

Somehow he was more and more sure that Etho really was just some poor, innocent person that time travelled. And, by not offering him to stay, he felt he just threw him out there to suffer.

He laid on the sofa, counting the flakey parts of the walls, trying to do anything to avoid feeling guilty.

This was indeed a cruel world. He, Beef, had no obligations to help Etho out. He had no obligations to help anyone out. People die way too often, but they just respawn, same goes for Etho. People don’t perish, it’s a thing as certain as one plus one is two...

Wait.

Etho might though.

Nothing told him that Etho would respawn like he would. Of course, he wasn’t alive for the immortality serum, he skipped that timespan entirely.

And, not only  could he die, he  would die. He would succumb to disease, he would age, he would get murdered and that may be the end of him. Either one or the other, but he would die.

_ And people die way too often. _

He didn’t even bother locking the apartment door behind him. 

It was raining hard. And Etho, albeit depressed and suffering and not particularly rich back then, had never lived on the streets before, not to mention in the rain with unknown dangers in an unknown era as a lower class. 

He had a hairband he was wearing when he committed suicide, and he tightened and readjusted it, just so his hair doesn’t stick to all over his face.

Dark sky, rain, neon lights, levitating cars, dumpsters and filth. Back when he was in his era, this is called cyberpunk, it’s cool, it’s in trend, he actually really liked the style.

But now it was nothing but a scene for potential tragedy.

People glance at him with unconcealed hostility, as he walked on the sidewalk aimlessly, hiding under the thin strips of still dry pavement.

Everything felt so so alien and threatening. He suddenly wanted to go back to Beef’s place, even though it wasn’t a place he wouldn’t even want to step in when he was properly alive, it seemed like a sanctuary right now.

Strangers continued to look at him hostilely. Some of them even paused to look at his weird eye colour from a distance.

Then the idea of immortality seemed all so pointless, and he wanted to commit suicide once again.

He tried to escape the glances, and he thought by jumping off of the tele tower, he could achieve that. Instead he was simply transferred to an even worse world, where more bad things than imaginable were all happening.

He lost comfort, lost his few friends, lost his possessions, everything.

Everything.

And all there was left is eternal suffering, or worse, being made into slave-like cyborgs.

Etho shuddered at the last thought. 

Just when he was about to turn back for Beef’s place, he felt someone pat his shoulder from behind. It scared him; he almost screamed out, but the man quickly shushed him.

‘Hey. Etho. You know me. I’m Doc.’

Etho couldn’t tell whether Doc was trying to help or trying to murder him. Beef said he was a nice guy, and even if he wasn’t there was no way he could fight him. 

So he didn’t fight back or say anything.

Doc’s hands on his shoulder and wrist were cold, making him shudder, as he got involuntarily pulled aside into an alleyway, like what Beef did to him during the day, but way scarier.

If he had turned around, he might have been able to see that familiar figure stepping out of a building’s door, seemingly looking for someone with hurry.


	7. Strange Abduction

Dave spent half a day trying to figure out what was wrong with the server. Now, not only was he being teleported - to yet another place - and had no idea which part of the map was it, he was apparently now in hardcore mode.

He knew Dan’s logging in within the next hour. He wanted to fix this before he does so, as a, well, the most he could help with the situation.

Etho was in what seemed like an abandoned factory. The coordinates on the F3 screen told Dave that this map was huge: he was almost a thousand blocks away from the origin where he and Beef last were together.

And, as much as he dreaded admitting this to his audience, he watched walkthroughs. More than one walkthroughs of all the alternate endings.

None of them matched their situation.

He was, honestly, very lost, and had no choice but to tell Dan that this series would probably end very abruptly and unfortunately too.

And the worst part was that people actually liked it, unlike Dan’s old series this one was supposed to replace. He got an new high of clicks for the entire past year on the first episode, and although he didn’t have access to Dan’s channel analysis, he knew that must’ve been the case for him as well.

In one word, this was really bad.

It sure was bad for Dave and Dan. And it sure was even worse for Etho and Beef. Mainly Etho.

He didn’t dare to say a single word so far, not on the way to this factory shell when Doc was tugging his wrist way too strongly, not when he was left in the empty, echo-filled building and didn’t dare to run away, not when Doc returned moments later and asked him how was he.

‘Come on. I don’t bite.’

That didn’t sound too true for Etho. He sat on the floor against the flaking, rough wall, the cold and dampness working together with the fear, making him hug his knees tightly, shuddering.

‘I’m not a bad guy. I don’t want to hurt you. But that doesn’t mean I won’t hurt you if I have to.’ 

This didn’t sound too true as well. At least the first part. The second part sounded completely credible.

People flashed in Etho’s minds, his mother, his few close colleagues, even the drugstore cashier he was familiar with. Any one of them coming to save him, or even just to be here with him, that would be greatly appreciated, although impossible.

‘Just answer my questions. I can offer you shelter and decent life as long as you cooperate.’

Etho was determined to not talk to Doc for some reason, he already deemed him an evil, scary person subconsciously. He could sure get through life without involvement in this, Beef said he couldn’t die...

Doc seemed to know what exactly he was thinking.

‘You will die. Unlike us, you will die. And I might be able to send you back to your time if you cooperate. Trust me, I have no interest based on your loss. Nothing at all.’

A car drove past on the road outside, the headlight shining on Doc’s face for a split second, missing Etho just barely.

‘I can help you survive. In fact, only I can help you survive. I don’t want to talk badly about Beef behind his back, but that’s the truth. He could barely support himself, not mentioning you.’

‘Also, admittedly, I need you and your old school engineering skills to help me achieve this.’

Etho was too scared and physically cold to realise that Doc must’ve been spying on him to know all that about him. The engineer part, the he-could-die part, everything, he had told no one but Beef about after he time travelled.

Seeing that he was still silent, Doc sighed.

‘Fine. I’ll give you time to consider. For tonight you can stay here, at least there’s a roof and a mattress on that side.’

Etho was still sitting there long after Doc disappeared to god knows where. He stood up after the chills were getting unbearable, and walked towards the half-torn mattress Doc was referring to.

It was really uncomfortable and cold, and he wanted to be back. He missed his soft bed and comforters, heat, hygiene, everything. He missed his life in general.

And that Doc person said he could get him back.

He didn’t trust a word Doc said. Part because he was still very overwhelmed by the idea of having time travelled to this one hell of a time, part because he simply didn’t. Doc still gave him the same expression as when they first met: creepy, scary, untrustworthy.

And on that note Beef was added to the list of people he was missing at the moment. For some reason, although Doc and Beef were equally untrustworthy to him logically, he just felt... safer with Beef. 

No reason. Beef simply felt like a person he liked being with.

He hadn’t fallen asleep the entire night.

Beef gave up after a few hours. He went back to his so called apartment, and stared at the ceiling for the rest of the night until sunlight started seeping into his windows.

That was it, that was all the time in his eternal life that he would cross path with Etho. These things happened often, way too often, you and a stranger looked at each other for five seconds, and you both disappear into the crowds and would never see each other again.

Everyone had been, was, and would be very used to this. This was simply how life is.

But for some reason Beef really wanted to find him again. 

It was as if he knew there would be an unbreakable bond between them.

I’ll go give Doc another visit to see if he knows anything about time travellers and stuff, especially about Etho, he thought. Doc knows quite a bit of things.


	8. Illusion and Reality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You all thought that I won't update ever again right lol

Chuckles, then words he could finally make clear.

‘...No I don’t know. I mean, there’s not too much point in caring about it, right? It’s not like we can keep ourselves alive, I don’t see a point in trying to find him.’

‘But-‘

‘Yeah, he will probably die pretty quickly. But not like we can stop that.’

‘Doc, he’s a life. A living person. If we both try to protect him until we find a way to...’

‘Send him back?’ 

‘Yeah. Or, I don’t know, get him immortal.’

‘I have no idea where he is. You know I never lie to you, I won’t lie this time either, I’m not supportive of your cause. But good luck.’

  
  
  


Etho had been at the back of the shop the entire time, Doc got him back from the factory that wasn’t even far away, and he heard almost everything. He wanted to shout to Beef to let him know he was there, but he didn’t dare, knowing clearly Doc was also there. 

Beef was still trying to find him, and, despite hearing the plain truth of it was almost impossible for him to survive, this made him very reassured. He didn’t really care about dying or not; definitely didn’t try to kill himself once. 

He just didn’t want to feel so alone and suffer. 

Doc opened the door, as the brighter daylight flooded in and the dim lightbulb over his head seemingly weakened. 

‘I know you think I’m a villain who’s trying to use you. I’m not. I’m your only way out. Forget about Beef, there’s no place for emotions in this place.’

He paused, staring at Etho, and it felt like he was staring right through him.

‘Yes I know you’re emotionally attached to him. I know he is the first person you saw after you time travelled. If I don’t appear out of nowhere you two would stay close and you might fall in love with him. And you’ll both die a lot because in this time we die a lot. And he will resurrect, you will die forever. You will finally find the reasons to live and then die. That, or nothing happens and you still die.’

‘It’s bound to be either a tragedy or nothing at all, but I can make it all better by getting you back to your time.’

Doc saw the hostility still in Etho’s eyes, and knew his speech was pointless. A hint of disappointment appeared on his face before he turned around and opened the door again, the bright daylight flooding in again.

‘I’ll leave you to think.’

The door closed behind him, the metals clanking, making a squeaky scratching sound before leaving the room and Etho in the pale dim lightbulb’s light.

Etho stayed motionless. He sat perfectly silent and still, looking as if he was making a hard decision. Then, after a short while, he stood up and opened the door.

Doc was right by the door. He watched in surprise as Etho hurried his way past him and started sprinting on the street, towards Beef’s almost invisible figure far away, and didn’t hesitate to chase after him.

  
  
  


Etho forced his legs to function. He was not starving but close, and his previous night was passed in backaches and nightmares. His legs felt heavy, but he was getting closer and closer to Beef, every step he took brought him more hope in catching up.

He didn’t trust Doc at all now. He used to, maybe just the tiniest bit, when Doc laid everything about the situation flat in front of him and told him his goal.

Not anymore. Not after he heard Doc lie to Beef while saying ‘I never lie’. He was right there, right behind him with nothing but a door in between, and Doc told Beef he wasn’t seen.

Beef was a stranger that bothered to search for him, with what sounded like genuine concern and, later when he failed, frustration and disappointment. Doc was a liar.

And apparently a liar that runs faster than him.

He forced himself to keep running, dodging the people on the street, as he felt the tall, ominous figure catch up to him more rapidly than he could ever run.

Beef was only meters away when Doc grabbed his shoulder. He screamed, only making the fingers dig deeper into his flesh, but he got Beef’s attention as the latter turned around because of the noise and saw the panicking Etho.

‘Doc wha… what are you doing? You’re hurting him!’

Etho hid behind Beef the moment Doc released him, his heart still beating wildly.

‘I just need to get him to cooperate. That’s all. Unfortunately he doesn’t trust me.’ Doc sounded calm, as if he didn’t seem like a kidnapper just then.

‘I wouldn’t trust you either if I were him, actually, I don’t even trust you as me myself. Did you just lie to me a moment ago Doc? When I asked you whether you saw him?’

Beef sounded a bit angry, and Etho somehow felt secure because of this. He held on to the corner of Beef’s jacket, hoping no one would notice it.

‘I… Beef listen, you’re a friend, and I don’t want you to get into this and potentially be captured. Etho is the tool to the success of my plan. I had to lie to you once. I’m sorry. Normally when I hide things away from you I simply don’t say anything but this one time you were holding onto it too tight.’

_Tool to the success of my plan._

_Tool._

Etho didn’t know how to feel about this.

‘What plan do you have involving a human being’s potential sacrifice? Doc, I really thought you better than this. I really did. I thought you know what morality is, I thought we promised each other no lies.’

Doc seemed a bit shocked by Beef’s accusations.

‘I did not expect you to trust him more than me in such a short amount of time.’

‘Don’t digress. What is your plan? Why does it involve Etho’s life? How did you come up with it?’

Doc looked at the near-furious Beef and the still hiding Etho, and swallowed, debating whether to tell Beef about it or not.

‘You’ll feel stupid if I tell you. I promise you will. You are not, but you will feel like it.’

‘Just tell me.’

‘Fine.’ Doc took a deep breath, the cold sunlight giving him an almost villainous halo.

‘Beef, how old are you?’

‘Twenty seven.’

‘Not physiologically… let me rephrase this. How long have you been alive?’

‘Ummm… fifty something years, right?’

‘And how far away is Etho’s era from ours?’

‘A hundred years.’ Beef answered all the questions without a moment of thought, but Etho already realised what Doc was implying. He subconsciously tried to say it, but Doc spoke before him.

‘Beef, after 2099 comes 2100. Not 3000.’

‘Wait... ‘

‘The immortality serum, Etho, and your birthday were all almost a thousand years ago now. Yes I know, that’s why I said you’ll feel stupid.’

‘Wait but how… I surely don’t remember being alive for a thousand years though...?’

Etho already released Beef’s jacket and moved from behind him to beside him, now that their interactions were more peaceful and involved less human-trafficking-esque motions. Beef looked at him, his expression one of having his entire worldview shattered.

‘You don’t. None of us do. I also don’t.’

‘But I was born in the 2060s and you in the 50s… that’s almost a thousand years ago right?’

Doc smiled as Beef finally got close to what he was implying.

‘So our memories have been taken. Nine hundred years’ worth of memories, all taken away and sealed up somewhere. I think it’s from the moment we got injected this immortality serum to nine hundred years after that. They also somehow made it so that we would never think about what comes after 2099 and question it.’

‘Beef, they wouldn’t do this for nothing. This means that the Digital Revolution of 2085 never took place. We wouldn’t remember it if it did. It either took place in 2985 or something, or… or that everything about the history we know is fake, planted in by them, just a story to cover up the truth, and the truth could be even worse than it.’

‘I’m preparing gears and going to the concentration camp, taking Etho as a side. I really don’t want to get you involved; of course you have an idea of how dangerous it would be.’


End file.
